The Cart Narcs and Human Psychology

What failing to put your cart away can teach us about human behavior

Hi Friends 👋,

i recently made a trip to my local grocery store. Upon entering, i saw a gentleman, who looked like he was on his way to the gym, picking up the bags from his cart and proceeding to leave the cart in the middle of the entryway to the store.

i stood there in amazement, wondering what was going through his head to block the flow of traffic when all it would have taken was 2 seconds to walk the 5 feet needed to return his cart to the cart queue.

At that moment, i made a snap decision on what kind of person this guy was. Later, feeling bad about my judgment, i messaged my friends Ben and Ty to admit the errors of my ways.

Only to have Ty respond with, “You’ve heard of the Cart Narcs, haven’t you?”

i hadn’t heard of the Cart Narcs, so i proceeded to binge-watch their videos, and what an amazing journey into human psychology that was.

When being called out on their “lazybones” ways, Cart Narcs' lingo, many would instantly respond with anger, searching for excuses on why they couldn’t or didn’t want to return their shopping carts.

There were also a fair share of people who engaged in rational conversation, some being convinced that it was the right thing to do to return their carts, and one of my favorites when one lady actually thanked the Cart Narcs for “calling her out on her shit.” Amazing!

Another fascinating behavior i observed was the tipping point between anger and full-on losing control of one’s ability to be rational. This tipping point seemed to be when the narcing went from verbal to being publicly shamed by having a magnet placed on the lazybone’s car, alerting all who could see that this person was the type of person that doesn’t return shopping carts.

This act seemed to be the barrier where one’s ego causes them to fight back against perceived shaming, leading to a desire to take action to defend the ego, often resorting to threats of violence, punches being thrown, and knives and guns being wielded.

Who knew you could learn so much about your fellow humans by observing how they react to being called out for not returning a shopping cart.

If you too want to go on this fascinating journey into how returning, or not returning, one’s cart provides insight into human behavior, go watch a few Cart Narc videos but be warned, they are highly addictive in nature.

Much Love,

-jason

P.S. Return your shopping carts. Please and Thank You 🙏🏼